News

Flying to the Bahamas

ByRyne Bergren January 25, 2018February 9, 2018

A couple weeks ago, my employer informed me that he wanted to take a group to Nassau, The Bahamas. I thought, no big deal, this should be an easy trip. The more I started to read, though, the more I realized it wasn’t going to be just a “normal” trip.

If you aren’t a member of AOPA, I would highly recommend joining. AOPA’s website was where I started researching. They actually have a checklist to help you along the way.

The first step is getting the paperwork started. All souls on board are going to need a valid passport. In our case, a couple of passengers need to get theirs. Since it was a little shorter notice, we had to go through the expedited process. It’s fairly simple. A quick internet search gave me a couple of people that helped the process along.

Next was making sure the aircraft had all it’s paperwork. The airworthiness certificate was easy as it’s always in the plane (or should be).

The registration certificate was next to check. We recently upgraded to the King Air 350 so we had to make sure we had the original issuance registration certificate. The Bahamas supposedly doesn’t allow Temporary Certificates and I really didn’t want to test that policy. Thankfully after a couple of calls between owner and the FAA we got the original.

The aircraft and pilot are both also required to have an FCC Radio License. This is only for international flying, but not an everyday thing pilots think about.

After that was flight planning. I use FltPlan.com. The actual filing of the flight plan was very easy. I use the prescribed routes from the website. In the remarks section of the flight plan put ADCUS (Advise Customs). This advices ATC to let customs know of your arrival. It’s basically an added safety net in case you forget to call ahead or your flight times end up being way off.

The other item when dealing with flight planning is dealing with eApis. There are numerous companies who will provide this service for you. I elected not to use one of those. If you go to the CBP website, you can set up an account and do all of it yourself. Take your time and really plan the flight out well to make sure your arrival times are as close to real time as possible. If you’re way off, this will make any customs agent very frustrated and that is not something you want to be dealing with.

Approach charts and en route charts are another hurdle. Thankfully Foreflight has you covered. With my subscription, I already had en route charts. The approach charts were the real issue. In the Bahamas, the only places that have approved instrument approaches is Nassau and Freeport. Fortunately, we were going to Nassau. Foreflight does charge almost $400 for the Caribbean and Bahamas charts. Emailing the FBO is a good option as they can usually supply approach plates for international flights.

You’ll also need a CBP sticker. This goes on the outside of the aircraft showing customs you’re in the system. This can be found on the CBP website as well. It takes a little bit to get the
sticker in the mail. However, once you pay for the sticker, the receipt can be used in place of the sticker.

The final thing I focused on was picking an FBO. I chose Jet Aviation. They had CAA which gave us a Jet fuel discount. Their facility was excellent and staff was very friendly. The thing that put it over the top for me was how they handled customs. I emailed Jet Aviation all the information for myself and passengers and they pre-filled all the customs forms for me. When we arrived, customs took all of five minutes and then my passengers were out the door.

While in Nassau, I stayed at Breezes Resort. It’s all inclusive so that helps keep the costs down for your owners if you’re a corporate pilot. It’s next to some of the other bigger resorts so there were shuttles available to get to other amenities. The only complaint I might have was the power kept cycling on and off and the internet wasn’t reliable. This proved challenging when trying to plan for the return trip.

The return trip required a lot of the same preparation. Again it was nice to have a good FBO to help prepare the paperwork required to clear customs. Jet Aviation handled the General Declarations for me and my passengers. All I was required to do was file the flight plan and file eApis, which was actually challenging while my internet at the resort was on the fritz.

Don’t forget to call US Customs at your Port of Entry! As this was Ft. Lauderdale for us, I called them twenty four hours in advance as prescribed. The customs agent was friendly and helpful with any questions I had. I think the best advice I can give throughout this whole experience is call ahead and ask lots of questions! Did I say that already?

The morning of the return trip went off with no hitches. Again, Jet Aviation had set up a driver to pick me up and he was on time. Jet Aviation had all the General Declarations paperwork pre-filled out for myself and passengers. Again, I use FltPlan.com to file my flight plans. Their service performed flawlessly even though I had heard rumors of flight plans not going through. To curb my bet, I talked with the staff at Jet Aviation and they made a call to tower for me to verify that the flight plan had gone through; of course, it had.

The actual flight out of Nassau was pretty uneventful. The last real hurdle I had was dealing with customs in Ft. Lauderdale, and hurdle it was. When we landed at FLL, ground instructed me over to customs ramp. There was no one to tell us where to park on the ramp. This was extremely frustrating.

A Learjet taxied in prior to us and had taken up most of the ramp but, we found a spot and shutdown. Once we shut down, no one came out to our aircraft. I walked in to talk to someone and was greeted by a Boarder agent who was less than helpful. Since the Learjet had parked first, they got to go through first. Evidently, we were not allowed in the building until they were done. This didn’t make my owner too happy!

Be prepared, though, if another airplane is on the Customs ramp before you arrive. You are not supposed to get out of the airplane until a Customs agent comes and meets you, even to go to the bathroom. This can result in large fines.

Once we were allowed in, the process went smoothly. We had to put all of our bags through the x-ray machine. Beyond the x-ray machine, CPB didn’t require any other security measures. On other crossings I’ve done, CPB had opened up bags and sifted through clothes, so just doing the conveyor belt was a surprise. The rest of the trip was fairly commonplace. We stopped in Destin FL for dinner before making our final leg into Dallas. All in all, it was an excellent trip and I’m excited to do another one.

Ryne Bergren works for a Part 91 operation in Dallas flying a King Air 350. Being a Part 91 outfit, he doesn’t get to rely on a “dispatch” or “company” to help with any international flight planning. This was a learning experience for him. Hopefully this will be a help to anyone for future trips.

Casey Aviation Makes Piper PA46 Systems Videos Free
ByHank Gibson June 17, 2021June 17, 2021

The safest pilots are the ones who attempt to gain as much knowledge and learning about their airplane and environment as possible. These pilots are the ones who enjoy learning, going to seminars and conventions, and soak up all the MMOPA magazine articles in each issue. These pilots are the ones who get as much training as they can, above and beyond what the minimum requirements are.

If you are one of these pilots and you own a Piper PA46, then this blog is for you.

Casey Aviation, one of the best Piper PA46 training companies out there, recently released all of their Malibu, Mirage, Matrix, Meridian, and JetProp systems training videos for free. These are some fantastic videos that Casey Aviation created which go much more in depth than any power point presentation could.

The great thing about the videos is they give the viewer an all access “inside look” to the specific airplane. Joe Casey, owner of Casey Aviation, takes off cowlings, crawls under the nose gear compartment, and even shows an airplane with the interior out so all the flap cables and environmental systems can be seen.

I have started referring all of my PA46 customers to the Casey Aviation videos as part of the prep work for our training sessions.

To access the videos, check out the Casey Aviation website.
Texas STOL Roundup
ByHank Gibson August 9, 2017August 9, 2017

Looking for a fly in this fall? Check out the Texas STOL Roundup at the end of September in Hondo, KHDO. Interested in entering? All are welcome! There are several different categories including LSA, Experimental, and others. Come in for a fun weekend and see how short an airplane can be landed!

There will be bands, a STOL seminar, and even a hangar dance.

Fly in or drive in. Camping will be available on the airport.

For more information, you can visit the event website.
Merry Christmas 2018
ByHank Gibson December 19, 2018December 19, 2018

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son (John 1:14).

From the Texas Top Aviation family (Hank, Kelsey, Everett, Cooper, and Cord) to your family, we wish you a Merry Christmas! We are thankful for how the Lord has blessed us this year. We pray for blessings on your family this coming year.

Keep the wheel side down and the sunny side up!

Merry Christmas!
Garmin GTN 750 Tips & Tricks
ByHank Gibson June 8, 2018June 19, 2018

The Garmin GTN 750 is an awesome piece of equipment. Garmin tried to make the user interface with the touch screen as simple as possible (though there still is a bit of a learning curve when moving up from a Garmin 530W). Garmin also integrated several key features that the 530W did not have that makes flying with a Garmin GTN 750 in IFR all that much better.

The two features of the Garmin GTN 750 I want to focus on today are the “Load Airway” feature and the “Hold at Waypoint” feature. If a pilot isn’t looking for these specifically, they can actually be a bit hard to find. The “Load Airway” feature is especially handy when flying IFR long distances with several airways as part of the clearance. Here’s how to utilize both.

Load Airway
1. On your flight plan page, insert the waypoint that you will be joining the airway, or, if your clearance was radar vectors to join an airway, then insert the waypoint on the airway that begins the leg you will be joining on.
2. Tap the waypoint you just inserted.
3. A menu will pop up. Tap Load Airway.
4. Select the Airway you want from the next menu that pops up.
5. Then, a list of waypoints will display to exit the airway. Select the waypoint where you will be exiting the airway.
  1. Note: Garmin defaults to listing these waypoints alphabetically. If you unselect the “Sort Alpha” option, it will sort the waypoints by direction and distance from the entry waypoint. This is a little more practical, easier to work with, and how I recommend doing it. This way you can either scroll up or down depending on the direction of travel on the airway and find your exit waypoint.
6. Tap Load.
7. The Airway and all the waypoints in between your entry and exit waypoints appear in your flight plan.
8. If you are getting vectors to join the airway, you’ll need to use the Activate Leg function to activate the leg you will be joining the airway on.
  1. On the Flight Plan page, tap the waypoint that ends the leg you want to activate.
  2. On the menu that pops up, tap Activate Leg.
Hold At Waypoint

The Garmin GTN 750 allows pilots to place a holding pattern at any waypoint that is in the Nav Database (or any user created waypoint). Here’s how to do it.
1. On the Flight Plan page, tap the Waypoint that you want to hold at.
2. On the menu that pops up, tap Hold At Waypoint
3. On the next menu that pops up, input either the inbound or outbound course, right or left turns, leg time or distance, and the EFC time, then tap Load.
4. You will see the hold now as a Waypoint in your flight plan.
Once the hold is entered, the GPS will go into Suspend mode, suspending the Flight Plan Waypoint Sequencing. Once you are ready to depart the hold, you will have to tap Unsuspend before crossing the holding point on the inbound leg, then the GPS will resume normal waypoint sequencing.

These are 2 of the really cool, gee-wiz features of the Garmin GTN 750. Following the above steps will make IFR flying much easier for the pilot, as well as much more enjoyable!
Rudder Use
ByHank Gibson September 15, 2021October 19, 2021

I have the blessing (same say it’s a curse) of being a tailwheel pilot. I did my tailwheel training in a Citabria and have gathered about 400 hours over the years in Citabrias, Super Cubs, and Maules (don’t judge all tailwheel airplanes by a Maule, by the way. The Maule is it’s own unique animal). The blessing of being a tailwheel pilot is that it greatly enhances my stick and rudder skills for all airplanes.

No matter what airplane you fly, basic stick and rudder skills are always important. At some point during a flight, the rudder will need to be used, even if you have an airplane that has a yaw damper. Rudder use is vitally important in the takeoff and landing phase, especially if you fly an airplane that generates a lot of torque on the takeoff roll. Rudder in that phase of flight is pretty evident, because if the rudder isn’t used, you’ll go off the left side of the runway.

Where I want to focus is rudder use in the landing phase. As an airplane comes down final, there are several forces that are be acting on the airplane. When it’s bumpy, updrafts and downdrafts are moving the plane up and down and all around. To correct for a bump that sends the airplane into a roll, aileron is added in the opposite direction of the roll. That aileron input also induces adverse yaw, pulling the nose of the airplane in the opposite direction that the pilot is moving the ailerons.

If a pilot isn’t using his feet correctly, then the nose of the airplane will wallow around through the air as aileron inputs are used. The tail is also moving around quite a bit, so the pilot might not “feel” the yawing moment, but the passengers in the back seat certainly will.

The other advantage that comes with proper rudder usage on short final is the airplane is more responsive to control inputs. When utilizing both the ailerons and the rudder, a pilot is able to fly the airplane much more precisely and control it much better.

This doesn’t mean you have to be staring at the turn coordinator the whole time down final. In fact, that’s exactly what you don’t want to do. Your eyes need to be outside the airplane. Just get in the habit of stepping on the rudder whenever you move the ailerons on final and eventually, you will feel what your airplane is doing. Don’t step on the rudder as hard as you can, but slight pedal pressure in the direction of aileron input will make a big difference.

Rudder is also vitally important for landing in a crosswind no matter that airplane. Crosswind landings are a learned skill that take a lot of practice to perfect. There is also a lot of confusion as to what control input does what during the landing.

Here is the simplest way to picture a crosswind landing and what the controls do:
- Aileron-When performing a crosswind landing, the ailerons keep the airplane over the centerline. If the airplane is drifting to the right of the centerline, add left aileron to bring it back to centerline, then keep enough aileron control pressure in to keep the airplane over centerline. In a perfect crosswind landing, the main tire on the windward side will touch down first. Left crosswind means left tire touching first.
- Rudder-When performing a crosswind landing, the job of the rudder is to straighten the nose to point down the runway. You will not be coordinated in a crosswind landing, you will be slipping, which is the goal. So, with a left crosswind, you will be inputting left aileron to remain over the centerline and you will also need right rudder to straighten the nose. This also prevents the airplane from actually rolling in the direction of the aileron input.
If you remember for a crosswind landing: “Aileron into the wind to stay over centerline, opposite rudder to straighten the nose.” Too much aileron and the plane will drift into the wind. Too much rudder and the nose will yaw in the opposite direction.

Rudder is very important, even in our day and age where a lot of general aviation airplanes have yaw dampers. Our feet only have a job for a short period of time, but that is the most critical time. An excellent way to get more proficient in rudder use is to go get a tailwheel endorsement. If you are in the central Texas area, check out TacAreo in Fredericksburg, T82.

Don’t let your feet fall asleep!
MMOPA Safety Stand Down Rescheduled for Online
ByHank Gibson June 19, 2020June 26, 2020

April 18th, 2020 was supposed to mark the MMOPA Spring Safety Stand Down, an event held around the country for PA46 owners which counted toward the Master Aviator program. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 repercussions, the in person event had to be canceled.

Thankfully, due to modern technology, the event has been rescheduled to a nationwide webcast. The date for the Online MMOPA Safety Standdown in Saturday, August 8th. Joe Casey and Travis Holland will be hosting the MMOPA Safety Standdown.

The cost is free. To register, please click here.